Curator Lynn Orr poses for a picture in front of Albert Moore's "Midsummer", oil on canvas painting of 1887 on display for the "The Cult of Beauty" exhibition at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, Calif. on May 21, 2012.

Photo: Siana Hristova, The Chronicle

Curator Lynn Orr poses for a picture in front of Albert Moore's...

Image 2 of 3

"When they put the paintings and the sculptures up, I cried, it was so beautiful" says curator Lynn Orr as she walks the first of the galleries in her exhibition "The Cult of Beauty" at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, Calif. on May 21, 2012. It took her 15 year to do the research on the British Aesthetic Movement from 1860-1900 and to collect the pieces from around the world.

Photo: Siana Hristova, The Chronicle

"When they put the paintings and the sculptures up, I cried, it was...

Image 3 of 3

"When they put the paintings and the sculptures up, I cried, it was so beautiful" says curator Lynn Orr as she walks the first of the galleries in her exhibition "The Cult of Beauty" at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, Calif. on May 21, 2012. It took her 15 year to do the research on the British Aesthetic Movement from 1860-1900 and to collect the pieces from around the world.

Photo: Siana Hristova, The Chronicle

"When they put the paintings and the sculptures up, I cried, it was...

San Francisco's Fine Arts Museums, which have been without a director for 14 months and have been the subject of rumors about the string of staff departures and who's running the institution, have let go another longtime and respected staff member: exhibition designer Bill White, who designed hundreds of exhibitions at the de Young and Legion of Honor museums since 1977.

White, 72, was told last week by executives at the Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums, which runs and largely funds the city-owned museums, that they were scrapping the two-member exhibitions design department and would hire outside designers instead. Elizabeth Scott, 35, White's assistant since 2005, was also given notice. Their departure follows the unexplained dismissal in December of Lynn Orr, the museums' esteemed curator of European art, and the firing Thanksgiving week of photographer Joe McDonald, a 27-year veteran.

"It wasn't my choice to retire this soon, but I will take my retirement," said White. He helped install the original King Tut show at the de Young in 1978 and designed a vast range of exhibitions, from the great Teotihuacán show at the old de Young to the glittering Cartier exhibition at the Legion in 2009. He worked on the planning of the new de Young and designed the case work.

"Our deputy director, Richard Benefield, decided he wanted to use more outside designers to give us more diversity in our exhibition design," said museums spokesman Ken Garcia. Many major museums have in-house exhibition designers, including SFMOMA and the Asian Art Museum.

Orr's dismissal

The local art world is still talking about the departure of Orr, who has retained legal counsel. She says museum officials told her she was being let go, after 29 years, because of her performance.

"When I asked how my performance was deemed lacking, they refused to offer any specificity or further information," Orr said in an e-mail.

"I have never received any indication of dissatisfaction with my performance, much less a degree of dissatisfaction that would warrant terminating me without any prior notice or even an explanation. The Museums' refusal to provide any explanation or details, or even to give me an opportunity to respond, further confirm that my performance had nothing to do with the termination decision."

Her support of the museums' unionized employees during last fall's labor negotiations may have had something to do with it, suspects Orr, a nonunion employee who attended a demonstration at a de Young event last September that resulted in 19 people being cited on suspicion of trespassing.

Before the gathering, Orr said, Museums Human Resources Director Charles Castillo sent a memo to all employees stating "the Museums' purported respect for our right to voice support for our union-represented colleagues. The Museums asked only that we not violate any laws or create any safety issues in doing so. ... I did not carry a sign, speak publicly, or engage in any action other than standing alongside my friends and colleagues."

A few days later, she went on, "I learned from my supervisor (the Chief Curator [Julian Cox]) that at the Monday meeting of the Museums' Governing Committee my presence at the de Young on the prior Friday evening had been discussed and that my actions had greatly upset the Committee members. ... I learned several days later from a former FAMSF executive that my actions in supporting my colleagues had angered a principal member of the Board of Trustees."

Photographer's case

Garcia declined to comment on Orr's departure, saying it was a personnel matter. He similarly declined to discuss McDonald's case. The photographer said he's mulling a settlement offer from museum officials.

McDonald, who's grieving his dismissal through his union, said he was fired because his private business allegedly conflicted with the museums', "which is a joke. There was no conflict of interest," said McDonald, who wore prison stripes to a staff meeting called to address concerns about the museums' new fingerprint-reading time clock system. "I can't figure out why else I was fired."

Meanwhile, e-mail printouts and other photocopied documents, apparently leaked by a museum employee, suggest that museum staffers - who were not city employees - occasionally photographed or crated artworks owned by museums board President Dede Wilsey that she was loaning to other museums.

Asked if that was true, Garcia said in a written response:

"There are situations in which the museum facilitates loans to the Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums (COFAM), loans to other museums, and in other ways assists with the care and handling of artworks for private collectors, including trustees when there is significant value to our museum. Often these involve collections that may be donated to the museum. ... When lenders, including trustees like Mrs. Wilsey, loan art work to other museums or for our own exhibitions - which has happened often - it would not be unusual for technical staff to help hang, crate, ship, store, or digitally reproduce copies of the art."

Garcia said the search for a director to succeed the late John Buchanan continues.